The Chocolate Dog Read online

  Where was all Amy’s own stuff going to go? Her paints, and her modelling clay set, and the gorgeous metallic pencils that she was saving for something very special? How was she going to keep all her things private and safe if Lara was in her room? Except that was the thing – it wouldn’t be her room any more. It would be Lara’s room too. They were going to have to share everything. And they’d be sharing Mum and Dad even more, when the new baby came.

  Amy bit her thumbnail anxiously and stared over the sand to the water’s edge, where Lara was prowling up and down. Mermaid-hunting again. Every so often, Lara would freeze and peer into the water, and Amy found herself holding her breath. Had she seen one?

  There was an outcrop of black rocks to one side of the beach, breaking out from the cliffs into the water. Deep in the rocks, reddish-brown strands of seaweed swirled around the pools the sea left behind. Even Amy wanted to believe that they were mermaid hair. Lara was completely convinced. Choc was staring into the water with her, skittering back every time it came towards his paws. He still wasn’t quite sure about this vast wetness. It was a lot, lot bigger than the pond in the park.

  Amy smacked a handful of damp sand down against the side of her castle and flinched, watching as a little landslide shivered down. Sandcastle building had to be done carefully. She didn’t build the usual kind, filling buckets and turning them upside down. She liked castles that were clever on the inside. Her castles had tunnels, and towers of flat stones, glued together with a wet-sand cement, only a tiny door hole left open. She loved wondering what might move in, after they trailed back up the stone stairs with their bags and rugs. If they lasted, under the sea, what would happen?

  Choc came pottering back across the beach towards her, sniffing happily at odd bits here and there. He’d already found three crabs and a lot of smelly seaweed, and it was only nearly lunchtime. He loved the beach, even if he wasn’t convinced about the watery bit.

  “What’s that?” Lara had followed Choc, and she was standing over Amy now, dripping. She nudged the castle with her toes.

  “Don’t.”

  “I’m not! I wasn’t doing anything!”

  “You were going to knock it down. You always do.” Amy flapped her hands at Lara, pretty in her pink swimming costume, her fair hair trailing down her back in a damp, sandy plait.

  “I’m not going to knock it down!” Lara yelled, stamping her feet and flinging her bucket on to the sand.

  The fragile castle, lovingly hollowed out inside, slumped inwards silently, and Lara stared at it, and then at Amy.

  “I didn’t mean to,” she muttered, shamefaced.

  Choc backed away, sneezing and shaking his head to get the sand out of his whiskers.

  Amy’s eyes burned. She scrambled up, wrapping her hands under her elbows to stop herself shoving Lara. She knew, deep down, that Lara hadn’t meant to. But how did she always manage to ruin everything?

  Amy looked at the sunken remains of her castle, and stirred it with her foot. She stood up, glancing back over at the rug. “Mum, I’m going to the rocks. Me and Choc. All right?”

  Her mum, who was wedged into a deckchair a few metres up the beach, nodded vaguely. Dad was lying on the rug, half-asleep, and he only waved. That was as good as a yes, Amy thought, patting her leg to call Choc.

  “The rocks! Can I come?” Lara pleaded, pattering after her. She wasn’t allowed to play on the rocks on her own, it was too dangerous, Mum said. But the rocks were the perfect place to go mermaid-hunting, and she loved them.

  “No!” Amy snapped back at her. She raced off across the sand, with Choc barking beside her, ears flapping. She could hear Lara wailing about being left behind, but she didn’t feel guilty. Or only a bit, anyway.

  The rocks were warm from the sun, and everyone else on the beach seemed to have got their picnics out. Amy and Choc could explore on their own. She lay down along one flat, smooth rock and stared into the water, squinting past the sun-glare. Choc stood next to her, wafting his tail back and forth slowly as he peered into the pool.

  “It’s all very well being the eldest, and being grown up,” Amy muttered to him. “But why’s it always my things that get spoiled? And Mum and Dad never tell her off. They just say to remember she’s little…”

  She sighed, propping her chin on one hand and enjoying the soft roar of the waves further down the beach and the hot sun on her back. She trailed her fingers in the water and smiled as the fleshy little anemones suddenly sucked in their tentacles. They looked like jelly sweets now, stuck on to the rocks.

  Amy laughed quietly as a delicate, almost transparent little fish shot past. She was sure she could see its stomach inside. She wished her friend Millie was here. She’d love it. She had a massive fish tank, and even though her fish were bright tropical ones, Amy was sure her friend would still know the name of everything in the rock pool. She’d have to tell her about it when they got back. Millie went to Brownies with her, as well as school, and they were all going on pack holiday next weekend. Dad was going to drop Amy there as soon as they got back from Sandmouth on Friday afternoon. Maybe she could take some shells back for Millie, she thought, stroking a striped shell that was stuck to the weeds just below her. But not that one; she was pretty sure it was occupied. It had definitely wriggled.

  Amy yawned wearily. She pillowed her cheek on her arm and stared sleepily into the water. The weeds swirled into glistening patterns, and her eyes half-closed. She felt Choc settling down for a sleep beside her, stretching himself out over the sun-warm rock.

  It almost looked like there was a mermaid in the water, though there was no such thing, of course.

  Amy blinked, and the face shimmered and re-formed. Long golden-red hair, rippling as the water swirled through it. Dark, shining eyes and pale deep-water skin that hardly ever saw sun. Light glistened on polished scales, and Amy sat up, gasping, about to scream for Lara to come quick and see. The mermaid was smiling at her, one arm reaching out to beckon her close.

  Then the sun went behind a cloud, and the shining water greyed and dimmed, and it was only seaweed again, and two dark shells, and an anemone.

  “Did you see that?” she muttered to Choc, her heart still racing. “It was … I mean, it was almost there…”

  Choc had his nose practically in the water, and his tail was twitching.

  “Did you see it?” Amy breathed. “I should have brought Lara.”

  Choc whisked round, hopping over the rocks, and hurried back along the sand. Amy turned to watch him gallop down the beach. Mum was still in her deckchair, and it looked like Dad was fast asleep now. But Lara was slumped on her own, halfway between the rug and the sea, arms wrapped round her knees. Amy could tell how she felt even from here, just by the way her shoulders were hunched. She shouldn’t have left her, Amy thought, feeling guilty again, until she saw Choc skid to a halt in front of her. Amy watched her jump up excitedly and stumble after him.

  “Did you see one?” she gasped to Amy, as she scrambled over the rocks to the pool.

  “Sort of. For just a second, but I’m not sure it really was…” Amy looked at Lara sideways, wanting to feel as excited as Lara did, but not daring to hope it could be real.

  Lara grabbed her hand and looked up at her pleadingly. “Show me,” she begged. “Where was it?”

  Amy crouched down by the edge of the pool, and Lara leaned against her. Amy could feel her shaking with excitement.

  “Red hair…” Lara whispered, reaching out her hand to stroke the feathery weeds and wobbling a little. Amy grabbed her round the waist, and Choc squashed himself protectively against Lara on the other side. Sometimes Amy forgot how little she was.

  “Maybe it was just the sun, shining on the water…” she told Lara.

  But Lara shook her head. “No,” she said, quite convinced. “It’s a mermaid. I can nearly see her, but she’s hiding. That’s all. There’s too ma
ny people.”

  Amy hugged her tighter, wishing she could be as certain as Lara was.

  They sat watching for ages, Lara gasping hopefully every time the water rippled, but it didn’t come back. At last Choc wriggled, wafted his tail against their legs, and gave Amy a meaningful look. Sitting still was all very well for a while, but there was a whole beach full of smelly seaweed to explore.

  “I suppose it’s probably lunchtime,” she sighed. She looked back along the beach. “Actually, Dad’s getting our picnic out, Lara.”

  Lara stood up. She was still gazing over her shoulder at the rock pool as they picked their way over the rocks and back across the sand.

  “Do you think we’ll ever see one again?” she whispered to Amy.

  “I don’t think it actually was a mermaid, Lara,” Amy began, but then she stopped. Lara wanted to believe it was. And so did she. Why couldn’t it be? She swung Lara’s hand and pulled her into a run along the edge of the sea. Choc ran after them barking, and eyeing the splashing water suspiciously, in case it was thinking of chasing him.

  “Maybe we will. And after lunch, I’ll tell you what, we’ll make our own mermaid. A sand one. Look, we can use all this seaweed for hair…”

  After that, Lara and Amy spent a couple of hours on each beach day stretched out on the rocks. Amy took her drawing pad and pencils, and drew mermaids, and sea-dogs, and undersea palaces, while Lara stared into the glittering water, and every so often sat up to look, and tell her how clever she was.

  Lara was so certain that the mermaid was there. She didn’t complain about sitting and waiting, she just dabbled her fingers in the water, and occasionally dripped them on to Choc’s nose, which made him sneeze. And about every ten minutes, she would gasp excitedly, peering into the water, and Amy would leap up to see if she could whatever Lara had seen. But she could never quite catch it.

  The days seemed to stretch out, long and sunny, and full of almost-mermaids. Until all at once it was the last beach trip, and the last ice cream, and the last mermaid-hunt.

  “I wish we could stay here…” Lara said sadly, swirling one hand in the water, watching as the anemones snapped shut.

  “Me too,” Amy agreed, drawing tiny seahorse hair-clips on to a red-seaweed-haired mermaid.

  “You’ve got the Brownies thing,” Lara pointed out.

  Amy blinked. She’d been looking forward to the pack holiday for ages, but she’d almost forgotten about it, in the dreamy sunshine of their holiday. “So I have. Tomorrow, when we get back home!”

  “You get all the exciting things,” Lara sighed, and Amy stared at her in surprise. Maybe there were some good parts about being the eldest.

  Millie came dashing across the car park, ignoring her mum having a panic behind her, and flung her arms round Amy. “I missed you while you were away, it’s been the most boring week ever.” She crouched down to make a fuss of Choc, who was frisking round their feet and tying Amy up with his lead. Millie loved Choc; she came with Amy to walk him whenever she was allowed.

  “I wished you were there too, ’specially while I was watching the rock pools. They were really cool; they made me think about your fish.”

  Millie snorted with laughter suddenly. “You’ll never guess what the theme for pack holiday is.”

  Amy shook her head. “What? Fish?”

  “Close. Under the sea. Just like your holiday.”

  “What do we have to do now?” Amy had never been away with Brownies before. The pack holiday had always clashed with her family going away.

  “Oh, you have to tell them you’re here, then find your room and put your stuff away.”

  “We’re together, aren’t we?” Amy asked anxiously, but Millie sighed. “No. I asked why, and Brown Owl said they were trying to mix the ages up so all the rooms had some older ones in. You’ll be OK, though. You’ve got Lucy and Cassie in your room. I’ve got to share with loads of the little ones.”

  Amy wrinkled her nose. Sharing. While she was away this weekend, Dad was going to move everything out of Lara’s room and into hers. Theirs. When she got home, everything would be different.

  “Amy, I just need to give all the forms to Brown Owl, and then I’ll be off, OK?” Dad passed over her sleeping bag and rucksack. “Give me Choc’s lead. Have a great time. I’ll come and pick you up on Sunday afternoon. Maybe bring your mum and Lara, if your mum’s feeling up to it.”

  Amy hugged him goodbye, her heart suddenly a panicky race. She’d been looking forward to this weekend for ages, since they’d first brought the letters home. For weeks and weeks she’d been thinking how much fun it was going to be. But now she didn’t want her dad to go. Even though Millie was here, and lots of her other friends. As her dad walked back to the car with Choc, waving goodbye to her, she wanted to run after him and beg him not to leave.

  Amy bit her lip to stop herself calling after him. She couldn’t work out what was the matter with her. It was only a weekend. She’d been on sleepovers before – she’d stayed at Millie’s house loads of times. So why was she getting all wobbly now?

  Luckily, one of the older girls who helped out, Lulu, came past just then, and gave Amy a hug. “You look so brown, Amy! Did you have a good holiday?”

  Amy nodded. “Yes. It was brilliant,” she added, almost surprised at how much she meant it. It really had been, and mostly because she’d got on with Lara.

  “If you take your stuff upstairs fast, you two can come and help me get snacks ready for everyone. Brown Owl’s brought these weird seaweed crackers because of everything being Under the Sea, but don’t worry, I told her to get some proper crisps as well…”

  Amy sat huddled up on the top bunk, hoping all the others were asleep. It was late, really late. One of the mums who’d stayed to help had been in to check on them all ages ago, in her pyjamas. Even the leaders had gone to bed. Amy was probably the only person left awake. She sniffed. If everyone was asleep, no one was going to hear her crying like a baby. She’d been determined she wouldn’t, but now she couldn’t help it.

  She hadn’t had time to miss home the night before – it had been exciting, their first night all together in a big room. They’d worked out a code with Millie’s room next door, banging on the walls to send messages, although it didn’t work very well, and they kept having to send one of the little ones to nip next door and ask what the message actually said. But that just made it funnier. Especially when Ellie had got caught by the leaders so many times that they’d rung her mum to check if she was OK, because she seemed to need the loo every five minutes.

  By then it was so late that Amy had fallen asleep without really meaning to, and she hadn’t had time to miss Mum and Dad and Lara and Choc at all. If only she could just go to sleep now!

  She was really enjoying the pack holiday, so it was stupid that she was feeling homesick. Stop it! she told herself crossly, as she wondered if Mum was missing her too, and felt tears run down her chin. Think about all the fun stuff!

  They’d been told to bring swimming costumes to the pack holiday (Mum had hung Amy’s damp one out of her car window for most of the way home, because she’d been worried it wouldn’t dry in time), but there wasn’t a swimming pool, so no one had known why until that afternoon. Brown Owl had sent them upstairs to change, and when they got out into the garden of the holiday house, there was a paddling pool full of water, and a pile of water pistols, and a note saying that they had to find as many fish as they could. Nobody was sure what that meant, but they’d set off looking, and discovered that the leaders were all hiding around the garden, and they had even bigger water pistols. And Lulu had a whole bucket full of water bombs.

  Everyone had got soaked, and it was brilliant, especially when Amy and Millie had nicked half the water bombs off Lulu while she was trying to stop another lot getting the fish she was guarding. Then they’d thrown them at Brown Owl from behind the hedge so she didn�
��t even see them coming.

  Amy sniggered, remembering, and wiped the tears on the edge of her sleeping bag.

  Tonight the girls from Millie’s room had crept into theirs instead, and they’d had a midnight feast, even though it was actually only nine o’clock. Everyone had brought sweets from home to share, tucked in the bottom of their bags. Cassie had told them a brilliant ghost story that someone had told her brother at school, about wolves, and a haunted loo, and a locked suitcase that made groaning noises. Everyone had been scared silly. Amy had even been thinking of telling everyone about the mermaid – it didn’t feel like the others would say she was making it up, just then.

  But then Millie had passed round a box of Maltesers, and they had reminded Amy of Choc when he did his big, sad, chocolatey eyes. He was probably missing her too. She hadn’t wanted any Maltesers, and she’d kept quiet about the mermaid after all.

  It was just then that they’d heard the leaders coming up to bed, and Millie and the others had to dash back to their room before they got caught. Everyone else had gone to sleep soon after that, but Amy couldn’t. She’d eaten too many sour cola bottles, and she felt a bit sick.

  Why couldn’t she just go to sleep? She was going home tomorrow. Today, now, it had to be after midnight.

  She was even really missing Lara. They’d spent ages that afternoon doing crafts, little bracelets with fish-shaped beads, and painting mermaid-shaped boxes. Lara would have loved it. Amy’s box was carefully packed away in her bag now, ready to give Lara for her birthday.

  She sighed, feeling the damp cold of tears soaking the blanket round her neck. She wanted Mum and Dad and Lara, and she really wanted Choc. Especially after having him on her bed all last week. She kept turning over and expecting to find a fat weight of dog next to her, but he just wasn’t there. And there was nothing like sleeping in a room with five other people all breathing to make just one little sister a lot less annoying. She wouldn’t mind about sharing with Lara, if only she could go home.